​Blaqk Audio return with new album Material

Davey Havok and Jade Puget have announced a 15th April release for Material, the new album from the duo’s electronic alter ego, Blaqk Audio. They’re giving fans a preview of the record with lead track Anointed, which can be streamed below. Fans can also get Anointed as an instant download by pre-ordering Material on iTunes.

Produced and recorded by Puget, Material is Blaqk Audio’s third release following 2012’s Bright Black Heaven and 2007’s Cexcells. “I’m so very excited to offer Material to the world,” says Havok. “My anticipation for each Blaqk Audio release heightens as we grow. For me, lyrically, Material is darker than our records of the past.”

Though best known for their work with multi-platinum rock band AFI, Havok and Puget’s shared love of electronic music runs deep. Havok, who counts Devo’s Freedom of Choice and Duran Duran’s self-titled debut among the first albums he owned, saw his tastes evolve over the years from the synth-pop of Erasure and Pet Shop Boys to Depeche Mode and ultimately to the heavier, darker Skinny Puppy, Ministry, Front 242 and Lords of Acid. Later, Havok immersed himself in the “futurepop” genre, which combined dark dance-y electronica with melodic vocals. From roughly 1999 to 2003, his contemporary musical diet consisted almost exclusively of artists falling under the industrial/edm/futurepop/bigbeat/trance umbrella.

“Considering this is Blaqk Audio’s third record over the course of its 15-year existence, it’s always an exciting and rare opportunity to release a new batch of songs,” says Puget. “Each new release finds us in a very different place, creatively, than the last,” he adds. “Influences are different, musical interests have slightly or vastly shifted. As a writer, I’ve moved fully onto [software music sequencer] Ableton Live since the last album, which changes my workflow and writing style.”

Puget shares his bandmate’s long-standing love of electronic music, beginning with a passion for Daft Punk, Depeche Mode, Ministry, Squarepusher, Nitzer Ebb, and Front 242. Spending a great deal of time programming electronic music led to a plan to start an entirely electronic side project: no organic instruments, just synths, keyboards, drum machines, and software.

“Being huge music fans and fundamentally driven by music in a creative sense, Blaqk Audio is a wonderful outlet for our long-standing love of electronic music,” says Havok. “Were it not for Blaqk Audio, I’d still be writing this type of music, even if it never saw the light of day.”

About first track Anointed, Havok says, “Anointed highlights themes of misplaced hopes of salvation, redemption and rebirth that carry through the record. Material is the blank canvas, the fundamental substance, the base of what we create.”

Both Blaqk Audio and AFI have an enduring relationship with Australian fans, with Puget and Havok having been memorably firey on-stage with AFI on the 2014 Soundwave national tour, and Blaqk Audio making a trip down south to support Evanescnce in 2012. This forthcoming release news will be most welcome to fans old and new of Blaqk Audio and AFI alike.​